


crash into me

by LtTanyaBoone



Category: Cardinal (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 15:53:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26580193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LtTanyaBoone/pseuds/LtTanyaBoone
Summary: “Where were you just now?” she asked as she touched her lips to the back of the taller woman’s neck.“Just thinking,” her wife replied as she relaxed into her arms briefly, before turning around in Noelle’s arms.“About?” Noelle inquired, searching her wife’s face.“I don’t know,” Sylvie shrugged with a slight tilt of her head. “Second chances, maybe? Like the one I got, thanks to you.”
Relationships: Noelle Dyson/Sylvie Dyson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	crash into me

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for _bicycle vs car accident_. The victim survives, it has a Happy End and no lasting injuries.
> 
> As I was working on a Sylvie/Dyson story, I got to wondering how these two may have met. This is sorta AU, since we don't know how it actually happened, and what their home life looks like pre-Jane, what plans they may have made.

Dyson reached up to run a hand through her hair in a frustrated gesture.

This was, it was getting ridiculous. There had to be something. Something that she, they, were missing. Something that would get them closer to figuring out who the killer was.

The detective flexed her fingers around the steering wheel of her car. The row of cars in front of her started to move again, and she tapped her foot against the gas.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something move on the side of the road. Briefly glancing over, she noticed the blonde cyclist weaving between the parked cars and traffic.

Maybe that was something they could look into, she suddenly thought. Their dead student that joggers found a couple of days ago, they had had a bike, as well. One that, from pictures, they knew was on the expensive side. Chances were that the kid’s killer had taken the bike as well, and was now trying to sell it. Make some money off of their other crime.

Noelle reached for her cell, dialing the number of her partner as she came to a stop at the next light. Traffic was just absolutely terrible today, and she just about had had it.

“Yeah?” the man greeted her with a gruff voice. Noelle rolled her eyes and bit back a comment. There was no point to it. The two of them didn’t particularly like one another, and the female detective kept all her fingers and toes crossed that the guy would end up retiring at the end of the year.

“It’s me,” she told him. “I’m on my way back to the precinct and I was just thinking, maybe we should check if the kid’s bike ended up on any of the websites. Perhaps the killer is trying to sell it.”

“Yeah. Maybe they were also dumb enough to put up a _“For Sale”_ note at the grocery.”

Noelle hung up her phone, tossing it into the passenger seat with a curse. She hit her hands against the wheel in frustration. The light was still red on her side, she was waiting second at the intersection.

This was just a crap day, in a crap week that was also only just beginning. At the rate that this was going, she had no idea how she was supposed to make it to Friday.

The sound of a car horn followed by screeching tires and a loud bang cut through Noelle’s thoughts. She jumped in surprise as a car entered the intersection before pausing, a body rolling off the hood. Noelle reached for her seatbelt, quickly getting out of her car and running to the intersection.

“I, I didn’t see her! She came out of nowhere, I swear-”

“Call an ambulance!” Noelle snapped at the driver, hurrying over to the cyclist on the asphalt.

“Hey, no, no, stay down,” she told the woman as she knelt down next to her on the street.

The woman let out a pained groan, flopping back down. The side of her face was scratched up, she’d probably hit her head on the asphalt when she rolled off the car. Noelle gently touched her shoulders, hoping to remind the cyclist to stay down. Her dark eyes widened as she realized that this was the same one that she’d seen just moments ago, passing her on the other intersection.

“Try to be still,” Noelle told the woman. “You had a pretty bad accident.”

“The light was green,” the woman muttered. She reached up to touch the side of her temple, where blood was trickling down her skin.

“Sh, it’s okay,” Noelle murmured, scanning her face.

“Where does it hurt the most, right now?”

“Everywhere,” the woman replied, a dry chuckle leaving her before it ended in a pained gasp. Noelle glanced down her body, noting the cuts in her clothes, the blood around them.

“You really should wear a helmet, you know,” Noelle said, looking back at the woman’s face.

“Forgot it at work. Didn’t want to go back in,” the blonde sighed, her eyes fluttering. The sight made alarm bells go off in the detective’s heads.

“No, nonono!” Noelle exclaimed, gently patting the other woman’s cheek. “Come on, stay away,” she told her. “What’s, what’s your name. Where do you work?” she asked, her mind grasping at things, at questions, just to keep the cyclist talking and conscious.

“Downtown. I temp, as a waitress,” the other woman replied, fighting to stay away.

“Good, good. Where? Where do you work? Is it a, a café, or restaurant?”

“Why? You wanna, come in? While I, work?”

Noelle blinked in surprise at the question, a familiar bell going off in her head. The one that told her to be careful, to keep her guard up. Keep her cards close to her chest, to not let anyone else see them, lest it give them the kind of ammunition to torpedo her career.

She was on her way to making DS one day, and maybe even soon. She couldn’t let rumors, about her private life get in the way of that. If people got an idea of what she got up to, with other women, it could mean the end of her career, if they thought it might be used against her. It sucked, it was the twenty-first century, but things were how they were.

The sound of ambulance sirens made Noelle look, her lips twitching into a relieved smile.

“Hear that?” she asked the other woman, who gave a small nod.

“Hm,” she flinched, her eyes closing again.

“Hey, you still haven’t given me your name,” Noelle reminded her, desperate to keep the woman talking.

“Hm,” was all she got as a reply, and Noelle let out a soft curse.

“No, no, stay with me. Come on, stay here. You’ve almost made it- Sonofabitch!” she cut off her pleading when she felt the other woman’s body go slack. Her finger’s went to the blonde’s neck, checking for a pulse and going up onto her knees to have more leverage as she placed her hands on the blonde’s chest to start CPR.

* * *

Noelle reached out and wrapped her arms around her wife’s waist from behind, stepping up behind her.

“Hm, where were you just now?” she asked as she touched her lips to the back of the taller woman’s neck.

“Just thinking,” her wife replied as she relaxed into her arms briefly, before turning around in Noelle’s arms.

“About?” Noelle inquired, searching her wife’s face.

“I don’t know,” Sylvie shrugged with a slight tilt of her head. “Second chances, maybe? Like the one I got, thanks to you.”

“I didn’t do anything special,” Noelle replied immediately, shifting uncomfortably at the reminder of what had happened that day over twelve years ago.

“Uh-huh,” Sylvie hummed. “Yet of all the things that happened that day, you’re the only person I remember,” she told her with a soft smile. “My guardian angel.”

“Sylvie-”

“I know, I know,” Her wife murmured, leaning in to touch her forehead to Noelle’s. “I’m just, teasing you.”

It made Noelle roll her eyes at her wife. It had taken her over a year, after the accident, to allow herself to think of the feelings she had developed for Sylvie as more than mere friendship. Part of it had definitely been that she had felt immensely uncomfortable with the implications of how inappropriate it was, for her to have romantic, or sexual feelings, for the woman that was so intensely grateful to Noelle for saving her life. Even when Sylvie had just tried to be friends, Noelle had been afraid of somehow abusing the power imbalance between them, of accidentally taking advantage of the other woman’s gratefulness.

But Sylvie had been insistent in trying to be her friend, and that’s what they had been, for almost a year, until Noelle finally gave in and agreed to go on a date with the blonde. At first, Noelle had chalked it up to wishful thinking on her part. That she was just seeing what she wanted, that Sylvie wasn’t actually flirting with her but just being friendly. The blonde had to ask her out three times, until Noelle realized that she meant is as an actual date, and not just a friendly dinner.

“I know you were just, doing your job,” Sylvie told her now, touching her lips to the smaller woman’s forehead. “And saving my life is not the reason I married you. Why I love you.”

Noelle searched her face for a moment, before leaning in and kissing the other woman.

“I love you, too,” she replied as she finally pulled back with a gentle smile. She reached up to gently caress her wife’s cheek, thinking how badly she had it. There was just, something about her, about Sylvie, that made the butterflies take off in her stomach all over again every single time she looked into her beautiful eyes.

“What was it you were thinking about? Second chances?” she asked, in an effort to get a read on her wife’s mood.

“Hm,” Sylvie hummed with a small nod. She reached up, toying with a stray strand of Noelle’s hair after she brushed it behind her ear.

“You know, I was wondering… It’s been a decade.”

“I know I didn’t forget our anniversary,” Noelle said. She hadn’t, that had been back in April. Given that it was the ten year one, they’d also had a big party, as well as taken the chance to renew their vows.

It had also been the first time that Noelle’s mother had been there for it. Her parents, they’d never come, to the actual wedding. But this time, Noelle had decided to invite them again, and her mother had come. She’d even hugged Sylvie, which had definitely been a first, and it had made Noelle hopeful in regard to a possible future relationship with her.

She wasn’t entertaining any illusions. She knew her father was still not going to accept it. That giving him more time, it wouldn’t change the fact that he hadn’t spoken to Noelle since the day she told him she was gay. That she loved women, that she’d never end up with a man.

But at least time had helped her mother come to terms with it, at least so much that she could attend the renewal of their vows. Slowly, gradually, she managed to accept it. And maybe, just maybe, the two of them, Noelle and her, they could have a relationship again. It would take time, of course. It had been over two decades, after all, since they stopped talking. But seeing her there, it had been really good. It had felt right, to have her mother there. Along with Noelle’s sister, and her niece, too.

“No, you didn’t,” Sylvie shook her head. “I don’t think that’s one we’re going to forget any time soon,” she added as she met Noelle’s dark eyes. “But I was thinking… Perhaps it’s time that, you and I, that we take that second chance, and, gift it to someone else?”

“Gift it?” Noelle repeated, her brows dipping in confusion at her wife’s statement. Her wife wasn’t making much sense, right now.

“Hm,” Sylvie nodded. “To, someone small. Someone who could, use a family,” Sylvie continued, swallowing. Noelle’s mouth opened and she stared at her wife in shock as the meaning of her words began to dawn on the older woman.

“You’re not, not talking about a puppy, are you?” she asked, her voice catching and forcing her to clear her throat.

“No, I’m not talking about a puppy. Or a kitten, either, or any other kind of pet,” Sylvie shook her head with a soft smile. She searched her face as Noelle let out a shuddering breath, tears starting to gather in her eyes at the thought of them with a child.

“Okay,” she nodded, reaching up to cradle her wife’s face. “I, okay. Okay,” she repeated, letting out a teary laugh when she saw her wife’s eyes fill with moisture as well as her lips tugged into a happy smile.

“Okay,” Sylvie replied, pulling Noelle in for a deep kiss. She wrapped her arms around the taller woman, hugging her tightly against herself, Noelle’s heart racing in her chest.

Okay. Okay. They were doing this. Second chance. Okay. They could do this. And the idea, of Sylvie with a little kid, it made warmth spread through Noelle’s chest. She shifted, hiding her face against her wife’s neck, relaxing against her form.

She loved her. They could do this. Together. Sylvie and her. Together, they could do anything.


End file.
